The present invention relates to a fibre structure with outstanding deodorant properties, residual-odour prevention properties, antibacterial properties and/or antifungal properties, etc, of durability not found hitherto. Such a fibre structure can be applied widely to, for example, clothing, curtains, wall covering materials, sheet materials, bedding and other such interior materials, and the interior trim materials of automobiles and other vehicles.
In recent years, along with improvements in standards of living, awareness of health and hygiene has also increased and, in the fields of clothing, food and housing, practical use is being made of products and techniques where deodorant, antibacterial, antifungal and antisoiling processing is employed. In particular, in the field of clothing, various deodorant, antibacterial and antifungal processing techniques have been developed. Furthermore, developments have also progressed in other areas such as household interiors.
For example, photocatalysts employed immobilized on the surface of an inorganic material such as a ceramic or glass are effective in terms of their deodorant properties, antibacterial properties, antifungal properties and antisoiling properties but, in order to fix photocatalysts to fibres, acrylic or urethane binders have hitherto been used and, since these are organic materials, the binders are themselves decomposed by the powerful oxidative decomposition capacity of the photocatalysts, causing problems such as discoloration and bad odours.
Other types of deodorant chiefly comprise those based on a neutralizing action, and few of these can exhibit a sustained deodorant function. For example, although acidic titanium oxide, aluminium sulphate and the like do show an effect in terms of deodorizing ammonia and other alkaline malodours, they are ineffective against bad smells which are neutral. Furthermore, in the case of zinc oxide where the deodorant itself is a base material, while this will neutralize acidic malodours such methyl mercaptan and hydrogen sulphide and convert them into odourless materials, it is ineffective against neutral malodours. Moreover, in these deodorizing methods based on a neutralizing action, no further effect is exhibited once the deodorant becomes saturated, and so a treatment of some kind, such as washing, is required to restore function.
There are also known deodorants which utilise physical adsorption, such as active carbon and silica. However, with these, the malodorous components are adsorbed and not decomposed, so they do not fundamentally resolve the situation. Ideally, it is necessary that malodorous components be completely decomposed to odourless components, but only a very few chemical materials are known which have such an action. For example, there is iron-phthalocyanine, and this material, which carries out oxidative degradation, has been incorporated into rayon fibre and used for example as a futon filler, and it has been confirmed that the odour of ammonia is thereby eliminated. Moreover, it is also known that hydrogen sulphide is oxidized to sulphur, mercaptans to disulphides, aldehydes to carboxylic acids and amines to ketones and ammonia. However, amongst these degradation products are some which themselves have a bad odour, and furthermore it cannot be said that chemical materials of this kind are effective against all bad odours. Specifically, they are not effective in eliminating the smell of tobacco or of perspiration.
Complex malodours like tobacco combustion gas are said to contain thousands of components, and deodorizing all of these has been difficult. Moreover, there are no deodorants which are effective against isovaleric acid, which is the principal component of human sweat. Again, the malodorous components of underarm odour are a mixture of several kinds of lower fatty acids and it has been difficult to render these completely odourless.
In the case of fibre structures which have been subjected to such deodorant processing, the adsorbed components may themselves give rise to a bad smell or the malodorous components may be changed by decomposition into other components which themselves produce a strange smell. In view of the problems of the prior-art, the present invention aims to offer a fibre structure with the outstanding functions of providing sustained deodorant, antibacterial, antifungal and antisoiling properties, without discoloration or degradation at the time of use.
In order to realise this objective, the present invention adopts the following means.
Specifically, the fibre structure of the present invention is characterized in that it has, on the fibre surface, a complex oxide comprising titanium and silicon, plus a binder. In particular, the invention relates to a fibre structure with outstanding deodorant, antibacterial and other properties which preferably has, on the fibre surface, a complex oxide comprising titanium and silicon, plus at least one type of binder selected from alkyl silicate resins, other silicone resins and fluororesins.